Jack McGeorge

Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge (born September 29, 1949 - August 18, 2009 ) was an employee of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Secret Service . He acted as an ammunition and weapons expert for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and then worked as a private advisor on security issues with a focus on terrorism and explosives .

BDSM affair

On Thanksgiving weekend of 2002, the Washington Post published an article on its front page stating that McGeorge is also a leading member of the BDSM community in Washington, DC . McGeorge was the founder of the Washington-based BDSM group Black Rose and one of the organizers of the Leather Leadership Conference , as well as chairing the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) , a nationwide group fighting against discrimination against BDSMers. He regularly held training seminars on BDSM topics. In these roles, he served both regionally and nationally in the United States.

The discovery of these facts led to excited press reactions in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world. In particular, the relationship between private sadomasochistic activities and professional identity came into the focus of public discussion. In this context, some commentators repeatedly compared BDSM with the torture techniques of the Saddam Hussein regime , while others compared today's discrimination against BDSM supporters with the situation of homosexuals in the past.

McGeorge made no attempt to deny his activities in the S&M scene; his full name appeared regularly in prominent positions on several websites, he confirmed this repeatedly to the Washington Post and other media outlets. Nevertheless, after the forced outing , in the hope of protecting the credibility of UNMOVIC in the run-up to the weapons inspections in Iraq , he offered Hans Blix his resignation.

After Blix had refused to accept the resignation, referring to McGeorge's high professional qualifications, some journalists made another attempt in their criticism. They pointed out that Iraqi Muslims could feel disturbed by the inspector's BDSM engagement and thus thwart his activities. In response, Hua Jiang , spokeswoman for the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan , stated that BDSM was not much more likely to lead to intercultural problems in the Middle East than any other issue.

Web links

• Public Safety Group Official website of Jack McGeorge
• A taste of the whip for Saddam. (engl.)
• Pleasure, Pain, and Saddam Hussein. A meditation on recreational violence. (engl.)
• Leather Leadership Conference Seven Presentation by McGeorge (statement in key words)